Pronouncements from the King of Gnomes!

Class

Gnomes are not superstitious. In a world with arcane magic, divine power, and interdimensional beings, these things are as natural as gravity, magnets, and electricity. Gnomeregan lacks the mythological origin stories that other cultures use to inform themselves who they are. For gnomes <unknown> is a valid answer until some mechanism that explains a phenomenon is demonstrated.

Gnome Philosophy struggles with different questions than other cultures. This is primarily due to the fact gnomes want to understand how things work so that those properties can be harnessed to some effect. Do origins matter? Dwarves are very concerned with their origins, but gnomes are not, because that information does not provide much insight about how things currently function. This peels back a layer and lets us see deeper into gnome philosophy. “How” is a much more important question to gnomes than “Why” is.

Physics, medicine, and chemistry and the very common and well developed schools of thought in Gnomeregan. They are things things that can be measured and applied in the physical world. The tricky things that gnomes grapple with are morality, aesthetics, and the nature of existence. Things that are innately abstract and don’t have obvious immediate application languish on the margins of gnomish disciplines. Their philosophy is less about acquiring wisdom for understanding and more about attaining knowledge to achieve goals.

There is a Micro and Macro aspect to gnome individualism. On the micro level is an individual gnome, made of of all of his or her physical parts, education, experiences, and expertise. All these parts come together to form a complex being that can accomplish amazing feats. Alone a gnome can create amazing things. These creations are then seen as an extension of the self though intellect and craftsmanship.

Every individual gnome is expected to bring their best to any situation. Any job that is necessary is important. This leads into their macro views. Just like each gnome is made of smaller parts themselves, on the macro scale, each gnome is a small piece of a larger community. This is one of the reasons gnomes don’t make many demands of the Alliance. In their expandable views of the self, any success of the Alliance is a success for gnomes as a part of the Alliance.

Gnomish thought-leaders come in all types. Gnomes that take on the roles of priest are not leading fields outside their role, however, they are important sounding boards for all gnomes no matter what the disciple. If a gnome gets too involved in their own personal goals, it’s the job of a gnome philosopher to remind them that they have responsibilities and that their actions have impacts beyond themselves. On the same note, they also guide gnomes that have lost focus and overextend themselves.

When soliciting feedback on ideas it’s also important to get multiple perspectives. There are gnomes that specialize in positive encouragement. Acting as a confidants, these optimists believe that there is a good idea at the core of any concept, and that it must be nurtured to realize it’s maximum potential. Other gnomes are skeptical, asking many questions about how the idea is going to be brought to fruition. It’s not that they are trying to discourage new ideas. Instead they want to make sure that the idea has been considered in depth before resources are spent trying to make it happen. Finally there are nay-saying cynics. Gnomes that offer this kind of feedback tend to focus more on the applications of ideas and the motivations for implementing them more than the feasibility of the idea itself.

Gnomeregan credits a lot of it’s strength to the fact that all citizens have a door that is always open, a gnome to talk to about any idea and work through and explore the merits and drawbacks of all potential ideas.

The recruits I have been assigned are having trouble overcoming their innate pragmatism. Duty to authority seems to be a key component of the paladin paradigm. For races that bow to higher authorities such as kings and queens this seems to come natural. The manipulation of the light energy on this level requires a devotion to the belief that it is a superior force to all others. Our meritocracy seems to be counter to these ideals. The recruits view all gnomes and energy types on their observable merits AFTER observation.

I am working on ways to prevent the light to recruits so that they will not question it’s superiority. We are going to try to focus on duty to community and see if that is a strong enough principle to keep to a code of conduct. I must admit, I feel morally dubious trying to teach gnomes not to question the nature of things. I just remind myself that their is nothing tall folks can do, that gnomes can’t improve!

Once we get a code of conduct in place, we will be past the hardest part!

Mekkatorque: “Greetings everyone! I’ve called you all hear today to apply gnomish ingenuity to a problem. I’ve received information regarding an invasion of Azeroth by the Burning Legion. We need to approach this problem from every possible angle. I’ve called you all here today because you are unique among gnomes. Each of you has been studying an area that gnomes traditionally eschew. We need to get gnomes in to these areas of study. We will be better off as a people with more diversification and specialization, AND we can offer our services and perspectives to those that already practice these arts bringing them new innovations.

Your task, should you chose to accept it. Firstly, train a group of recruits in the techniques you’ve mastered. Secondly, develop a new technique or modus operandi to bring back to the communities you have been studying and demonstrate to those communities the benefit that only gnomes can bring.

((Considering doing a comic about 3 gnomes, each assigned to bring a new class in to the skill set of gnomes, and their comedic set-backs.))

The Hearthstone leak that Maiev Shadowsong is a Rogue prompted me to reexamine something. I had said that I considered Maiev a Paladin, a Shadow Paladin. Problem is that Shadow Paladin isn’t really a thing in Warcraft. There are some places that seem to imply they might exist, but nothing too solid.

In a lot of settings, Death Knights are Anti-Paladins. I’ve never quite felt this way about DKs on Azeroth. An Anti-Paladin would functionally be identical to a Paladin but use Shadow Damage rather than Holy. I felt like Chronicles verified this with their Cosmology chart. Holy and Death are not polar opposites, Holy and Shadow are. So I started putting this together to prove my point:

And I realized, Anti-paladin is Rogue. So I guess by my own Logic Maiev is an Anti-Paladin if she is a Rogue. It still doesn’t seem right to me. Maiev used a random assortment of abilities in WC3, Blink, Fan of Knives, Shadow Strike and Avatar of Vengance. The Avatar of Vengeance ability really reminds me of the Paladin Guardian. She also wears plate…

In the end I guess she is a rogue, but I have to agree with @Arakkoa “Garona was the obvious, perfect choice”

I would love a quest like the Warlock Green fire quest to replace holy with shadow for Paladins.

Paladins would embark on a quest that would either:

Call on them to do questionable things in the line of duty -OR-

They take a quest from someone that gets them to go against their code for what seems like the ‘greater good’ with disastrous results.

Option two seems like a better option, something like Maraad’s “Lords of War” story. Through the course of the story they struggle with reconciling the teachings and philosophies of the light with the horrors and war of Azeroth.

At the same time Night Elf and Forsaken Paladins could be introduced that start off fallen and can do a quest chain to be redeemed.

Examples:

Maiev Shadowsong and the Wardens as shadow paladins.

Leonid Barthalomew the Revered and Commander Springvale as undead paladins.

Worgen and Gnomes, might be able to fit this paradigm as well. Worgen Shadow Paladins that channel the darkness of their curse, or the light through Elune. Cynical gnome fallen paladins that have given up hope on restoring Gnomeregan through reputable means, and have their hearts filled with rejection.

The Current Hero classes, Death Knight and Demon Hunter are REALLY cool. I like how Death Knight tried to add a really unique resource system, and Demon Hunter tries to do things that no other class can. But in the long run, they are built and balanced like any of the other core classes.

I would really like to see some “Hero” Classes that shake things up as far as play style. There are few ‘challenge mode’ things that people already do in wow that could lend themselves to this.

For example, some people play a Pacifist. They don’t do quests or kill mobs, the level up through professions and other none-aggressive means. That would be a real game changing class. At level ten you could pick between an Artisan, or a Diplomat for your specialization. Artisan could increase your efficiency with your professions, possibly opening up extra slots. and Diplomat could give you bonuses to reputations, let you learn other languages, and possibly make you neutral to the opposing faction. ((this class would not be able to swap specs after they had been chosen))

Something similar could be done for the Ironman challenge, but that might work more as a template of restrictions for the current classes, rather than a whole new class.

I think a tinker class would work in Warcraft. We have Goblins and Gnomes. The legion is big on building large robots, and we’ve seen a steampunk airship in an opening cut scene now. We also have a Tinker as a base representation of Warcraft in Heroes of the Storm. I know that what happens in HotS is not lore for the games they pull from, from the very beginning this character, a ticker, was included to represent Warcraft, and it is not out of place. It does seem like some crazy thing that isn’t from Warcraft. Gazlowe fits right in next to Arthas, Illidan, and Uther.

I used to think that the Engineering Profession would overlap to much, but I realize now that simply isn’t true. Inscription and Death Knight both use runes, but they do not overlap in game mechanics in anyway. The Engineering Profession has little to no combat abilities.

There is a lot of sentiment about their being too many classes in the game now. I totally get that. I personally think that tinker could be a forth spec for Rogues. The Defias Bandits have a strong leaning towards engineering. I think it would be a good way to add a tanking spec to that class. (literally, in a tank)